Jaak’s House – The Valleys

Jaak lay on his bed, trying for the umpteenth time to get any kind of signal on his phone.

No service.

Very occasionally as if to taunt him, a fleeting bar of signal might appear for a moment, but it faded just as quickly.

The Tets formed a network of four strategically placed space stations, providing communications, internet relays, and a key part of Cyanos’s planetary defence system.

Well — the part of it that lived in the modern world with internet and flush toilets. Not the part stuck up the far end of a technologically forsaken valley with a can to crap in.

Jaak sighed. His repeated attempts were in vain. No service — and definitely no chance of his dad installing a satellite dish. His dad could be so — damn — stubborn.

“Not in the culture, boy,” Altai had chuffed on his first day. 

Jaak looked out the window and up towards the trail that led up to the top of the ridge a few hundred metres above the cabin. He had not been up this trail before. When he first came to the valleys, he discovered that any walking in the snow in his prized basketball boots quickly ended in soaked, freezing paws. Naturally, he had tried to avoid this unpleasantness for the first few weeks and had mostly moped at home, staring at the few functions that still worked on his phone, sans service.

The second reason he had not been up the ridge trail was that his dad had made no secret of thinking Layan, who lived in a small cabin at the top of the ridge, was a bit crazy. Jaak wondered if it was more to do with him not fitting in with the culture — something he himself was fast starting to identify with.

He was trying hard to make the best of his new situation and fit in, but yes, if he was being honest with himself, he desperately missed the modern city, his friends and all it had to offer.

Jaak swung his feet off the bed and sat on the edge. He looked down at his large paw feet. It was true. Since he had finally ditched his basketball boots the night of the gathering and started going about bare-paw, he really had discovered that this was the way to get around in the snow. He took his phone and headed outside towards the trail. If he had a chance of catching any kind of signal it was going to be up high on a ridge. 

The trail wound its way up and through the trees, climbing steadily. It was well marked and Jaak knew he wouldn’t get lost as long as he didn’t wander off and into the trees. He climbed, stopping occasionally to catch his breath — white steam puffing from his muzzle — and to check his phone. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not even a fleeting bar.

Eventually, as he continued his climb, the trees began to thin and what looked like the ridge crest came into view. Fallen logs lay off to one side, and near the top an outcrop of rocks jutted out beside the trail. A few puffs of wood smoke curled up from behind the ridge. He couldn’t yet see a cabin, but there had to be one close.

At the rock outcrop, he found himself at the top of the trail. Jaak could see that the trail continued on down the other side of the ridge, disappearing into the trees once more. He walked to the nearest rock and sat, catching his breath — and checking again for signal.

Jaak looked at his phone, and with a small glimmer of hope, a couple of tentative bars flickered onto the screen.

Jaak froze.

Don’t you dare disappear…

He tapped the screen to bring up the video messaging app in the hope that one of his friends from Aoraki might be online. Dieter! Jaak’s high school friend from the planet Hundeerde was online. Jaak eagerly tapped his avatar and the app beeped back at him.

Dieter’s orange mop of hair and wet nose suddenly filled the small screen in Jaak’s hand.

Dieter snuffled loudly, inhaling sharply, and with a shake of his head, the booger disappeared.

The image flickered.

Dieter vanished.

No service.

Jaak desperately tapped the phone screen. He even stood on the rock and raised his arm as high as he could. It was no good.

The signal had gone.

Dejectedly Jaak slumped back down onto the rock and put his phone back into his pocket. He would have to try again some other time.

How long Jaak sat there he didn’t know. He desperately missed his friends back in Aoraki. Even the fleeting call with Dieter had only made his isolation feel worse. Unnoticed, lost in his own thoughts, time began to slip away.

Jaak became aware that the sun was sinking beyond the ridge, casting a golden glow across the snow that slowly shifted to magenta pink. It was getting dark — fast.

The nor’ lazy wind began to build, dropping the temperature like a stone.

Jaak hastily jumped up from his rock, padded back to the crest of the trail, and looked frantically around him. Just below the ridge, he spotted the source of the smoke from earlier — a small cabin. He figured it must belong to Layan, whom his father had often spoken of in less than flattering terms.

There was nothing else for it — he would never make it back down the mountain trail before the nor’ lazy chilled him to the bone and darkness settled in. There was no full moon tonight.

Carefully he made his way down the hill towards the cabin. It looked much like the other small cabins in the valley — not unlike his own. This one, however, seemed more weathered, worn by the harsh north winds that whipped across the ridges.

Tentatively and cautiously he approached the cabin. A low light was shining in the window and smoke from the chimney still curled gently upwards. Outside, on the wooden deck, an old rocking chair swayed in the wind, and at one end of the cabin a pile of firewood was neatly stacked. The deck creaked accusingly beneath his paws, sharpening his apprehension — for a moment, he considered turning back.

He approached the door and knocked gently.

Previous — Episode 1: Fire Circle
Next — Episode 3: Layan’s Cabin